Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Pumpkin coffee cake is moist, tender, filled with pumpkin spices & topped with crunchy streusel topping. It’s an easy crumb cake recipe that’s perfect for breakfast or brunch – and a delicious way to celebrate fall. Pumpkin. Cinnamon. Streusel. Cake for breakfast. It’s time to invite your friends over for brunch – because this pumpkin coffee cake needs to be on your baking list. It starts with a super moist pumpkin cake that’s filled with vanilla, brown sugar, and lots of cinnamon – so it has all the flavor of your favorite pumpkin pie. Then it’s topped with delicious brown sugar crumbles and a drizzle of sweet vanilla glaze.

Or after having a piece – you might just want to cancel plans with your friends and save all the cake for yourself… Because this pumpkin coffee cake is delicious.

What you’ll especially love about this recipe is how easy it is to make. There’s no mixer needed, and the whole thing comes together in under a half hour (plus baking time).

Pumpkin Coffee Cake Recipe

First, we’ll make the crunchy brown sugar streusel by mixing together melted butter, sugars, flour and cinnamon. It will be the consistency of damp sand and form clumps when you squeeze it in your hand. You can also think of this recipe as a pumpkin crumb cake.

Then it’s time to get on with the cake. It’s full of flavor because we’re using:

brown sugar because it adds a delicious caramel-like undertone. When in doubt – I use brown sugar whenever possible because of the delicious flavor it adds.

Now because we’re making a coffee cake, we want the batter to be very thick and the cake should be moist & dense in texture. To keep it moist we’re using oil, 3 eggs and sour cream in addition to the pumpkin. Because the batter is very thick, be careful not to over mix it or else it’ll become tough. After whisking together the flour, spices & leaveners; then whisking together the oil, eggs, sour cream & pumpkin; everything gets gently folded together with a spatula or wooden spoon. If there’s lumps in the batter feel free to whisk it together with a few strokes – but be careful not to get overzealous. No need to be whisk happy here.

Then our pumpkin sour cream coffee cake batter is poured into a 9×13 inch pan (you’ll be happy that this recipe makes A LOT of cake), the streusel is crumbled on top, and it’s baked in the oven for about 35-40 minutes. Because this cake is so dense – I find the trick of inserting a toothpick to test when it’s done baking doesn’t always work. If you’re unsure if the cake is done yet, you can also give the pan a little nudge and see if the cake wobbles in the centre. If there’s a wobble then it’s still gooey in the center and it’s not done yet.

Then we’ll drizzle on the glaze, and get to work enjoying a delicious slice of this coffee cake. Happy fall!

Tips for Making this Pumpkin Coffee Cake:

At the end of the day – here’s my main advice:

Make sure your 9×13 inch pan has high enough sides (about 2 inches or more), otherwise the cake could overflow

Room temperature eggs & sour cream make it easier for everything to mix together evenly

I love a crumble and I love anything pumpkin so this was a winning combination! This recipe was really easy and made a good amount (enough to take to work AND have some to keep at home). I will probably go back to this recipe over and over because it was so perfect.

I haven’t tried it – so I can’t be 100% sure of the results. I think it would take about 50-60 minutes to bake in loaf pans, and you likely wouldn’t need all the struesel topping. I’ve halved the recipe before and made it in an 9×9 inch square pan no problem – the bake time is about 30-35 minutes.

I haven’t tried, so I’m not certain of the results. If you doubled the recipe, I think it would be too much batter for an 11×15 inch pan though – the are of a 9×13 inch pan is 117 square inches and the area of an 11×15 inch pan is 116 square inches.

That was sooooooo delicious! I used dark brown sugar in the cake mix and it came out tasting more like a gingerbread cake. It was very moist. I did need much more heavy cream for the icing. I put the icing in a plastic bag to drizzle on top but didn’t wait but 30 minutes so it melted but didn’t matter to us. I will definitely make again!!

Hi Kay, I’m glad you found the cake moist but I’m sorry you didn’t find it all that flavorful. I can honestly say that’s the first time I’ve heard that about this recipe. I wouldn’t use coconut oil or butter next time, as they both will behave differently than oil and the cake won’t be as moist. Plus – you wouldn’t really be able to taste them since the pumpkin would cover the butter/coconut oil flavor. You could try increasing the amounts of spices next time. Because this is a coffee cake recipe, it isn’t as sweet as a cake that’s meant for dessert. If you’re looking for a sweeter pumpkin cake recipe, you could try either of these ones instead: Pumpkin Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting or Pumpkin Cranberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.